Run, for your life
by Hobbsy3
Summary: The team is in for a shock after recieving new transfers when cases from the past return. Mac and the team have to figure out who seems to be raising old victims only to kill them again? Various pairings, a little romance, a lot of mystery, a fair amount of angst...Please read and review! Will cross with CSI and maybe Miami.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter one**

For the fifth time that day, Jess felt the heavy thuds of her captor's footsteps before she even saw him. She shifted her weight onto her haunches to fight, but her head drifted back and hit the wall. Painfully the first two years had slid by. But the third year...The third year meant her chances of being found were less than one in a million, She had seen enough kidnapping cases in her job to know that, and that killed her. Why did you never think that it would happen to you?  
>She took a deep breath as the key turned in the door.<br>"I'll make it," she whispered. "I'll get out." Her brain was quick to respond.  
>"No you won't."<p>

*****  
>"What do you mean, you're leaving?" Mac Taylor asked in shock as Jo Danville passed him her letter of resignation.<br>"I can't take it anymore, Mac. Not the job itself, but the hours, the demand. I'm Ellie's second mom; she sees almost less of me than she does the first one. She needs me around. I'm moving to Arizona in a week."  
>"That's...sudden." Mac stuttered.<br>"I know. But there's an enrolment for the school there and I promised Ellie that we'd be there for it. I organised a replacement so you don't have to. All cleared with Chief Sinclair, so you don't have to play politics. She's a friend of mine from way back. She ran a crime lab near New Orleans or somewhere, but there was an internal investigation and she doesn't trust her workmates. You'll like her, Mac." Jo paused to look around the dinner. "She'll be here in five."  
>Mac opened and closed his mouth. "How do you know we will like her?"<br>"I'll be heartbroken if you don't, Mac." A new, unexpected voice sounded from behind Mac's head, and he turned.  
>"Stella!" Mac stood up and hugged the newcomer warmly, before sitting down and ordering Stella Bonasera a drink. "Well, the two of you have left me speechless. What's this about internal investigations, Stell?"<br>Sighing, she took a swig of her drink and turned to Mac. "The people in my lab in New Orleans are always turning on each other, and within a month I was ready to come back. They accused me of stealing evidence. Even when I was proven innocent, I just wanted to leave. To work with people that I trust, my friends. Jo just, gave me the opportunity."

"I didn't realise you'd even met!" Danny Messer exclaimed half an hour later when Jo, Mac and Stella broke the news to the stunned crime lab.  
>"There are lots of things about the two of us that you don't know, Danny." Stella smiled mysteriously.<br>"Okay, now I'm worried."  
>Everyone laughed and the elevator door opened with a ping. Don Flack strode in confidently, only to stop and blink several times.<br>"Stell?"  
>"Hey, Flack. Miss me?" Stella quipped, embracing the detective warmly.<br>"What's all this about?"  
>"Jo's leaving and Stella's coming back." Lindsay Messer explained.<br>"As of when?" Don stammered, dumbstruck.  
>Jo and Stella exchanged glances. "As of today."<br>"Wow, that's rather fast." Sheldon Hawkes frowned.  
>Jo shrugged, offhand. "I have a plane to catch, a house to pack up, and a teenager to get packing. I wanted to surprise you."<br>"Consider us surprised." Adam Ross replied. "It's like going back to the beginning."  
>The CSIs and Flack stiffened as a large, African American man strode down the corridor.<br>"Chief Sinclair." Mac stated in acknowledgement.  
>Sinclair nodded at him. "Taylor. Welcome back detective Bonasera. I have a notice for you all. It will be officially announced later, but Taylor, I don't want you coming up to me later accusing me of not giving you fair warning. You are being drafted new members onto your team. It's a government scheme, due to the big plans that the president has for the city. There are three transfers from Las Vegas who are on the same team at the moment, one from San Francisco and another from Vegas who is coming out of an early retirement. They will be coming sometime this week. There are also five transfers from Miami, who will report to Horatio Caine, their current boss, but they won't be coming for another month or so. The first group of transfers will answer mainly to Detective Taylor, Detective Bonasera but overall to their boss, the ex-retired man, a Gil Grissom. His position will be equal to yours, Taylor. Catherine Willows will be his deputy from San Francisco, and the three other members are, I believe, Sara Sidle, Nick Stokes and Greg Sanders. However, you will mix and match crimes and work together. Is that alright?" Sinclair finished.<br>"So I work for years to take charge of this crime lab only to have to share it with strangers?" Mac asked, bewildered.  
>"I'm sorry Mac. Just think of it as extra man power. Besides, you know that we're extending the lab. You'll be fine." Sinclair turned tail and left.<br>Danny's shocked mouth formed a single word. "Boom."

Jess shuddered and pulled the torn shirt up over her shoulder as the drunk man sauntered away. She glanced at the other woman in the corner, her new 'cell mate'. Age was unpredictable- the neglect and beatings could age or take years off you. Her face was dirty and bruised, but she looked almost pretty. Her deep brown eyes were sunken in her face, which was framed by long brown hair not unlike her own, but her whole body shuddered from the past two hours under the heavy body of the leader of the captors. Jess felt guilty for the relief that she felt that today was not her turn; she could still feel the throbbing bruises between her legs from the day before, and the day before that.  
>"How long you been here?" The woman asked quietly.<br>Jess shrugged. "A few years, maybe two, three, four at most?"  
>"Lucky you. I've been here five or more. What's your name?"<br>"Jess. Jessica Angell."

**What do you think? It is my first CSI:NY fanfiction and as you can probably tell it is going to be a crossover with CSI and (probably) CSI:Miami as well! please review and tell me what you think-constructive critiscm is nice-but please don't be too harsh!**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Author's_****  
><strong>

**Chapter Two**

"So don't start thinking you can start again, start a riot in the streets my friend, or they'll start pulling us apart again, cause Sidle hands make idle men." Greg Sanders stopped singing abruptly as Sara Sidle's eyes narrowed.  
>"What did you say about my hands?"<br>"Nothing." Greg said nonchalantly, and Nick Stokes raised his eyebrows.  
>"Don't let Grissom find out your talking about what Sara's hands do to a man."<br>"Nah, he's not my boss anymore- OW!" Greg cried as Sara hit him round the head with her case file. "I'm married, Greg!"  
>The three of them walked around the corner of the Las Vegas crime lab and stopped immediately when they saw Conrad Ecklie sat on Nick's desk.<br>"We're transferring you." He said bluntly.  
>Nick's eyebrows furrowed and his mouth dropped open. Sara and Greg looked at him in shock and Sara put her hand on his arm. Angrily, she glared at Ecklie.<br>"Why Nick? We need him here!"  
>"Oh, you misunderstood me. All three of you are being transferred. To New York. Next week."<br>Greg's mouth dropped open. "Well do we have any choice?"  
>"I wouldn't be telling you like this if you did, or even if I did. It's the president's man's plan. Something about shuffling talent, putting the best guys where we need them."<br>"But we have lives here. It's not like we're federal agents, you can't do this. We're supposed to _ask _for a transfer. We have the right to stay here." Sara exclaimed, noticing DB down the hall with a stack of personal files, a bitter, defeated look on his face.  
>Ecklie's trademark scowl decorated his face"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. You should all be grateful that you're still together. It's, final; you're moving."<p>

Mac met them at airport. The San Francisco flight came in at ten, the Vegas flight ten minutes earlier. Mac straightened and put down his coffee as a blonde woman in a tailored woman's suit spotted him and walked over. She held out her hand.  
>"Catherine Willows." She said.<br>"Mac Taylor." He replied, shaking her hand firmly. "Welcome to New York."  
>"Thanks. Sorry about invading your territory like this. I got an angry phone call from an ex boss asking me to transfer here. I only agreed when he told me that members of my old team would be there."<br>"Your old team?"  
>She smiled. "I left the Las Vegas crime lab two months ago."<br>Mac smiled knowingly. "It's a hard job to escape from."  
>"Damn right it is." She sighed, then straightened. "D'you know where round here that I could buy a decent coffee?"<br>Mac pointed to a small cafe. Catherine smiled and thanked him, beginning to manoeuvre her two big bags around the airport.  
>"Here, let me watch those." He said, and Catherine smiled again, her pretty, tired face relaxing slightly.<br>"Thanks." She repeated.  
>She was still in the queue when the Vegas flight came in. He looked at the photographs he held in his hands to identify his new colleagues and thanks to his superior skills as a CSI he spotted almost immediately who he presumed to be Greg Sanders, a young man with brown hair highlighted blonde, and a cheeky looking face. He seemed to be teasing the petite brunette next to him, Mac recognised as Sara Sidle, a pretty middle aged woman with a seemingly trademark gap between her teeth. He watched as she raised her eyebrows at Greg seemingly asking him how old he was. Mac smiled, the exchange reminding him slightly of Lindsay and Adam. Sara turned her head to a taller, greying man behind her and smiled, kissing him lightly as he took her massive bag. Mac was sure that he was Dr Gil Grissom, which would leave the good looking man lightly shoving Greg to be Nick Stokes.<p>

Mac took a sip of his own coffee and signalled to the group. Nick nodded in his direction and the CSIs walked right up to him.

"Mac Taylor." He said, shaking hands with each of them. As they introduced themselves, Mac almost smiled-he had got every name perfect.

"Hey guys!" Catherine called, returning with her coffee. Everyone but Sara and Grissom stared in shock.

"Cath?" Nick asked incredulously.

"Hey Nicky!" she laughed, giving him a hug.

"Well, this is the week for reunions." Mac muttered happily under his breath. After allowing the other CSIs a few minutes of greeting, he cleared his throat. "The department has organised a hotel for you all to stay at for a couple of weeks- but if anyone can't find a place to live, I'm sure we all have couches."

Sara smiled warmly. "Thank you."

"If you like, I'll take you to your hotel, give you a couple of hours and then come, take you to the crime lab-it's a couple of blocks from the hotel."

"Sounds good to me." Greg mused.

"Then I will meet you all in the hotel lobby at about one?" Mac asked, as everyone nodded and agreed

"So, Danny, what've we got?" Stella asked, walking over to him.

"Severe whiplash from rapidly changing supervisors." He replied, a teasing smile on his face.

Stella smiled knowingly. "About the scene?"

"Right, right, well there's our vic, seems to be Caucasian male, I'd say in his thirties, but uh, it's a bit hard to tell."

Stella looked down at the body wedged inside a pizza oven. "Well, he has been well cooked."

"Which makes it hard to estimate TOD." Sheldon said, walking up behind them with Sid who kneeled down to look directly into the low oven.

"Yes, but he doesn't look completely charred, there's still quite a lot of him, rather than a burnt skeleton. I'll have to tell you more at the morgue, I'm afraid that there's not much that I can do here."

"Okay, thanks Sid." Stella said, grinning. She was so happy to be back with her team. She flashed back to the New Orleans ME, a strange, cruel women, whom Stella had always suspected to be a bit of a sociopath.

"_God," Stella said, kneeling next to the five year olds body. "Who could do this to a kid so young?" _

"_Get back!" the ME snapped, as a strange Mona Lisa smile adorned her face. "Aren't these wounds beautiful. You're killer is a genius, an artist." _

Stella shuddered her way out of the memory, glancing at Sid and imagining the many differences, trying and failing to imagine Sid smiling callously over the body of a child.

She was just wondering why she had ever left when she noticed something wedged in the otherwise pristine floor of the crime scene.

"There's nothing here. This place is like some neat freaks house. Jeez." Danny sighed. "I mean, you'd at least expect the employees' fingerprints everywhere."

Stella reached into her kit and pulled out a pair of tweezers, easing out the tiny piece of paper. She unfolded it, and mouthed the words.

"_I admit that in the past I've been a 'nastie' _

_They weren't kidding when they called me kinda strange _

_But you'll find that nowadays I've mended all my ways_

_Repented seen a light and made a change_

_And I fortunately know a little secret_

_It's a talent that I always have possessed, _

_And dear lady please don't laugh, _

_I use it on behalf_

_Of the miserable the lonely and depressed_

_Poor unfortunate souls._

_In pain, in need_

_This one longing to be thinner_

_That one wants to get the girl_

_And do I help them?_

_Yes indeed! _

_Those poor unfortunate souls, _

_So sad, so true_

_They come crying to me crying will you help us pretty please_

_And I help them, yes I do." _

"Is that written in blood?" Danny asked, noticing the red inscription.

"Yeah, think so." Stella replied.

"You done here?" Hawkes asked the others, holding up his phone. "Cause Mac wants us back asap."

Stella frowned. "That's unlike Mac."

Sheldon nodded. "I know. But he says that he wants the team back by one if at all possible. I think that's when the transfers arrive."

"Well, at least he's given us two hours, but still." Danny frowned. "The past few days have messed us all up."

"Yeah, well I think that we should be done here in half an hour or so." Stella said, looking around the empty scene.

A mere two trace samples later, they were back at the lab, Stella staring blankly at the piece of paper. Danny walked in and for the first time read the words.

"You honesty having difficulty with that, Stell?"

She looked at him in disbelief, "You don't?" 1

"Course not! You know, the song..." Danny started humming the Disney tune as Lindsay walked in, Lucy on her hip.

She started to sing. "Poor unfortunate souls.

In pain, in need

This one longing to be thinner

That one wants to get the girl

And do I help them?

Yes indeed!" Lucy started to sing along with her mother, to the best of her three year old ability,

"Those poor unfortunate souls,

So sad, so true

They come crying to me crying will help us Ursula please

And I help them, yes I do."

Stella looked bemused. "Okay, a three year old knows a poem left at a crime scene?"

Lucy's face lit up as she recognised the woman who hadn't visited her in months. "Auntie Stella!" she squealed in delight, scrambling down from her mother's hip to run into Stella's opening arms.

"Hey, kiddo, has daddy been spoiling you enough?" Stella smiled, laughing as Lucy firmly shook her head.

Lindsay grinned. "He's been too busy getting himself promotions and demotions and transfers-"

Danny raised his eyebrows at his wife daughter, "Alright, alright, lay off Daddy, now. Linds, I thought it was your day off, Maria's out of town."

Lindsay nodded. "Which is why Trouble is in the lab. I got a 911 call from Mac, has it got to do with that Disney song, there?"

Stella frowned. "Disney song?"

Lucy tugged the top of Stella's sleeve impatiently. "From Ariel!"

"The Little Mermaid?"

Lucy nodded.

Stella frowned, more confused than ever.

"Is that what this is about?" Lindsay pressed.

Stella shook her head. "No, I don't think so. We're meeting the transfers at one."

Lindsay glanced at her watch, then looked down the hall to the lift.

"They're here."

_Ooooh, whats gonna happen when the two teams collide? And who leaves Disney at a crime scene? Sorry if these chapters are a bit slow, I'[ll try to make up for it in chapter 3! _


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey, anyone who is still reading this story. I am trying to update as fast as possible, but with exams just around the corner that's not as much as I would like to. Thank you so much for reviewing _lily moonlight, _and thanks to everyone who has subscribed, Favorited etc-that really makes my day! **

** I'm not overly pleased with this chapter, but the first three chapters were more introductions and beginnings. I tried to put a glimpse of one of the directions this is going at the end, but the real excitement starts Chapter Four, the next chapter, which I will hopefully finish and upload ASAP! Please REVIEW! Thank you! **

**Hobbsy3**

**Chapter Three**

After Jess told her what her name was, the other woman had retreated back into her own thoughts in the corner, rocking back and forth, arms wrapped around her knees, and it took Jess hours to gather up the strength to talk to the other woman, not wanting to upset her. As she opened her mouth, she reminisced about the days when she had so much confidence. She knew where most of it had come from- Don. She almost cried again as she remembered how gentle he was, how he had treated her as if she was precious, like she was worth something. She remembered his soft hands gently caressing her body, the way he made her feel safe. The way he loved her. Love. She wondered vaguely if he had moved on. Part of her hoped he had-she wanted him to be happy- but a larger, more prominent part of he wished he hadn't. She knew that it was selfish, but everyday of her being, she craved for him to find her, that if he was with someone he would leave her, come back to Jess. It was all she dreamed off.

"You got something to say?" The other woman said curiously, noting Jess's slack jaw, and bringing her out of her daydream. She blinked.  
>"Oh, sorry. I... What's your name?" She cleared her throat and raised her head, drawing on Don's memory to give her strength, and remind her of the confidence she had once had.<br>The other woman smiled. "I guess I owe you that much. My name is Aiden Burn-"  
>"As in used-to-work-in-Mac-Taylor's-CSI-team-Aiden Burn?" Jess blurted, her eyes wide.<br>Aiden's eyes narrowed. "Why?"  
>Jess swallowed. "I...I worked for the NYPD, I worked a lot with the team. They talked about an Aiden Burn, who died a few years back. That you?"<br>Eyes widening, Aiden leaned forward. "You know them? Danny, Stella, Mac, Sheldon, Don?"  
>Jess flinched slightly at Don's name, and despite her years off the job, Aiden noticed.<br>"What?" She murmured.  
>"I...er...I was Don's partner in er... More, more than one way." Her eyes fluttered to the floor.<br>"Oh," Aiden's eyes widened.  
>Jess frowned. "They said you were dead."<br>Aiden sighed. "Well. That's where it gets tricky..."

The corridor seemed to hold its breath as the two teams walked towards each other. Sara took a deep breath. Outwardly, she looked at ease, almost eager. Inside, she was way out of her depth. She knew how different New York was from Vegas, besides; she worried that she would get lost as Morgan had on the way to her first crime scene. All this, and she would be day shift, another completely alien thing to her. Taking another breath, she smiled inwardly at Grissom's comforting hand subtly touching her own. On the other side, she could her Greg muttering almost silently, as if giving himself a pep talk, his trademark cheeky grin plastered on his face . On the other side of Greg, Nick's face was blank but warm, displaying no emotion, yet silently screaming 'I'm a nice guy!' Sara didn't think he knew he was doing it. It was just Nick's friendly aura. Catherine on Nick's far side was the only one Sara could not see hidden nerves on. She had done this before, now she did it with friends. On the outside, Grissom just looked eager, keen to work again, but Sara could read the invisible lines of worry embedded in her husband's face.

By the time that they reached the other team, Sara was almost ready to throw up from the nerves churning in her stomach. However, there was no turning back now, and Sara was becoming a master of hiding nerves.

"So," Mac said loudly, clearing his throat. "Everyone, these are the new transfers," he indicated to each person in turn, "Sara Sidle, Greg Sanders, Nick Stokes, Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows. They've all worked together before." Then he turned to the other side a small proud smile just about evident on his face, "and this is my team, Stella Bonasera, my second in command, Sid Hamerback from autopsy, and the CSIs, Adam Ross, Dr Sheldon Hawkes, and Danny and Lindsay Messer, and their three year old daughter Lucy."

"You're married?" Greg blurted out suddenly, his eyes wide, earning him stares from everyone. Catherine put her head in her hands. Greg suddenly blanched. "Wait-no-wait that came out wrong-it's not like there's a problem with that or anything, it's just, Sara and Grissom are married and I thought that inter team relationships were, like, frowned on so I thought it was a one off, but no, marriage is cool. Urgh, sorry if I er..."

"Need a shovel, Greggo; you're digging a pretty big hole there." Nick murmured out of the corner of his mouth.

"Please," Greg muttered, his face going red.

Lindsay laughed lightly, and Lucy tugged her mother's sleeve. "Mommy, I wanna see Uncle Don, he said he'd show me the nee-naw car!"

"Not now, sweetie. Mommy and Uncle Don are both too busy at the moment." Lindsay sighed, shuffling Lucy onto her other hip. Danny eased the little girl out of her mother's arms.

"Hey, I'll take you to see Uncle Don later, okay?"

Lucy nodded glumly. "Daddy. I'm bored!"

"Hey, Lulu, wanna come play some video games that Uncle Mac doesn't know about?" Adam whispered loudly, and Mac smiled. Lucy considered for a second, before nodding vigorously and squirming out of her father's arms in order to take Adam's hand.

"So we start work tomorrow?" Grissom confirmed, as the whole group watched the laughing Adam lead Lucy to the AV lab.

Mac nodded. "If you feel comfortable, you can have the office at the back of the building, it's more private than the others."

Grissom smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

Greg groaned as the alarm on his phone beeped. Light was searing through the curtains, which usually meant he hadn't had much sleep. He thrust a pillow over his head and fumbled with the phone until the merciless beeping stopped.

He was just drifting off to sleep when his phone rang, the shrill ringing piercing his ears and the vibration causing the phone to fall off the bedside table and hit him on the head.

"Ow," he muttered as he squinted at the phone, before pressing accept. "Hello?" he croaked.

"Greg, it's Nick. Just thought I'd see if you were up yet, seeing as we're supposed to start our new jobs in, I dunno, half an hour and you haven't even come down to breakfast yet." Greg could here the smile in Nick's voice, but what Nick was saying shocked him into a sitting position.

"Shit!"

Nick laughed as he heard Greg scramble around getting dressed. "I'll be up to your room in 10 minutes."

Greg stumbled into the bathroom and splashed his face with water. As he struggled through his 'morning' routine, Greg noticed that the voicemail light on his phone was flashing. As he pulled his socks and shoes on, he listened to the message, a man's voice singing eerily down the phone.

"Shoes upon the table  
>an' a spider's been killed.<br>Someone broke the lookin' glass  
>a full moon shinin'<br>an' the salt's been spilled.  
>You're walkin' on the pavement cracks<br>don't know what's gonna come to pass.  
>Now y' know the devil's got your number,<br>y' know he's gonna find y',  
>y' know he's right behind y',<br>he's starin' through your windows  
>he's creeping down the hall."<p>

Frowning, Greg stared at the message. "Wrong number." His finger hovered over the delete button, but something told him not too. Then he shook his head. "Don't be so superstitious" he chided himself, and then deleted the message.

Somewhere in Brooklyn, a man gritted his teeth angrily. How dare the little punk just disregard him so easily? Roaring, he threw a chair at the wall, where it shattered over the head of the girl chained there. She cried out, but in seconds he was over, and he covered her mouth. He brought out a gleaming knife and rested it on her cheek.

"You remember Sanders?" he murmured comfortingly. The girl nodded mutely. "You do? Good. He found the man that put you in this, predicament." The man smiled as the girl sobbed. "But, Sanders just did a very bad thing, and I'm afraid you will have to pay for that." The man gently brushed the hair away from her neck and took off his tie. He carefully braided two other ties into it, until he had a thick rope. For a second he gazed at the girl in pity, she was beautiful and he loved to do her. However, Sanders had just crossed the line. He was not a man to be ignored. He bent down to her level, and opened her mouth with his own. Then he used his fingers to force it open even further so he could stuff the gag into her mouth. He tied it tightly at the base of her skull, and began to kiss her neck. He thrust himself into her, and took the knife in his right hand. He took her left hand in his, and slowly began carving letters into her skin. She screamed and squirmed, but he held her firm until he was done. Then, he picked up a length of his special rope. He was proud of it, of the thousands of glass and metal shards embedded within it, just waiting for the rope to be stretched. That way, the girl would be in maximum pain when he hung her. Greg Sanders was his first target.

Greg Sanders' torture started now.


	4. Chapter 4

**#Note# Hey anyone still interested in this story. Hopefully, it only gets better from here, because all the angst and action starts here. However, I really really really like reviews as they give great inspiration, but I only have like two! (many, many thanks to lily moonlight for reviewing) Please, please review, as it will UNDOUBTEDLY make me update faster. Thank you! **

**Chapter Four**

"Yo, Greggo, you wanna open the door? I'm not waiting for-" Nick cut off as Greg flung the hotel door open. "C'mon, the others are all waiting in the lobby."

Luckily, they all got to work in time to be handed out cases by Mac. "Okay, we have a triple murder downtown, for Sara, Catherine and Adam, and I will be joining you there in about half an hour, I just have to run over a few things with Sinclair. There's been a young girl killed in Brooklyn, if Lindsay, Nick and Greg could take that, and Grissom, if you could join Stella, Danny and Sheldon with the pizza oven case that would be fantastic."

General mumbles of agreement reverberated around the group, and anticipation began to flood the veins of the Vegas CSIs. They all knew how important impressions made on a first case could be in a career.

"Okay," Catherine turned to Sara. "Let's go. Adam, can you give us a ride, we haven't got our own cars yet?"

"Uh, yeah, sure..." Adam stuttered, unsure of his opinions on the two new women. He didn't _not _like them, but something about Catherine told him not to make her angry, which would undoubtedly make him stutter. Adam hated the irritating nervous habit- it was so obvious- and he was suddenly very jealous of Danny, Sheldon and Stella. They got to work with two other people they knew and were friendly with. Adam loved his boss, but it didn't stop Mac from making him nervous a lot. All of this, he knew, would make the newcomers think he was a little kid, Adam thought miserably as he clambered into the car.

Sara took the front seat and Catherine slid into the back.

"So," Sara said with a friendly smile. "How long have you been a CSI?"

"Um, well technically I'm not, I er, I work in the lab, but sometimes Mac takes me out into the field when we're short of hands..." he muttered, hating himself for going red.

"Ah, okay. Bit like Greg then, not exactly of course, but he started as our trusty DNA guy, ended up becoming a CSI." Sara smiled.

Catherine nodded. "You prefer the lab or the field?"

Adam frowned slightly. "Personally, I prefer the lab. But, it's just where I feel I belong more." _Best not to mention being ever so slightly afraid of the field, ever since being tortured, alone at a scene around six years ago. There was hardly any fear left, just enough to remind him where he wanted to be._

"So, you're married?" Greg asked Lindsay.

Lindsay laughed and Nick rolled his eyes. "Greg, stop it! I'm really sorry Mrs. Messer-"

"It's Lindsay, we're just as informal as you are, and don't worry about it. Curiosity hasn't killed anybody round here recently."

"Except the cat." Greg pointed out, and Lindsay laughed again.

"Yes, I am married. Danny and I got married nearly three years ago, about a week before Lucy was born."

"He got you knocked up and waited nine months to marry you? Ouch!" Greg cried as Nick struck him on the back of the head.

"Greg, stop it!"

Lindsay raised her eyebrows, and kept her eyes on the road. "Actually, he asked me to marry him just after I told him about the baby. But, I turned him down. I didn't want to marry for the wrong reasons."

Nick shook his head. "Greggo, you need to stop asking personal questions when you've only known someone for like, 12 hours, man." then he muttered under his breath "You're really embarrassing me

"Sorry, Lindsay." Greg muttered. "Sometimes I can't help myself."

The sweet smile still evident on her face, Lindsay replied, "It's fine, really. I mean, we're detectives. So what about you? Either of you two in a relationship?"

"Nah," Nick sighed as Greg shook his head.

"Just as well though, cause whenever Nick gets with someone, it ends with trouble, like when he went out with that girl, the prostitute she was murdered and when he went to this party with Catherine he got with this blonde chick and Cath got kidnapped, then when he made goo-goo eyes at this waitress-"

"_Greg!_" Nick winced. "Stop it!" Greg suddenly stopped, realising that he was about to talk about Warrick so flippantly. He swallowed.

Lindsay glanced to the side, detecting the sobered edge of the two men. Lindsay remained silent, unwilling to pry. "Here we are!" she chirped happily, as soon as she saw the house on the address she'd been given. The two men perked up, all business, and they got all got out of the car.

"Lovely spot" Nick murmured, staring up at the crumbling walls of the derelict warehouse the where facing.

Lindsay stared sadly at the building. "Not where a young girl should spend the last part of her life." Suddenly her face lightened as Don strode out of the building.

"Hey Linds!"

"Hi Don, this is Nick Stokes and Greg Sanders from Vegas, there're two of the new transfers."

Smiling, but with a slightly guarded expression on his face, Don shook hands with the two men in turn. "Detective Don Flack. Great to meet you." His face darkened slightly. "Right, we've got one dead body, a girl we think she's about fifteen, no ID, and no idea why she's here-this place is condemned."

"Does it look like she came here voluntarily?" Greg queried

"Well, I'm no CSI, but I don't think so. Her wrists and ankles have what looks like ligature marks all over them, an' she's skinny as hell, so I'm thinking either she's a self harming anorexic or she's been held captive for a long time. Besides, it was a full moon last night. What young girl is gonna come to a deserted warehouse in the rough part of town on a full moon?"

As they entered the room with the body Lindsay's stomach twisted painfully at the sight of the young girl's body hanging from the ceiling, naked save for a paper poncho covering her arms, chest and breasts.  
>"You gonna be alright, Linds?" Don murmured so the two new men couldn't here, referring to Lindsay's past. She smiled weakly.<br>"I'll be fine, Flack. It's just so sad."  
>"I know."<p>

The victim was hanging in the middle of the room with a rope attached to a wooden beam. A plastic bag covered her face-the rope she was hung with securing the bag in place, aided with thick layers of duct tape. The room was messy, with seemingly everyday objects strewn around the place.  
>"Fan out and cover everything?" Greg suggested, uneasily aware of Don's sceptical gaze. Lindsay and Nick nodded and they walked forward.<br>"If we start in the corners, and work our way in towards the body until the coroner gets here...?" Nick suggested.  
>"Works for me." Lindsay murmured as she began to photograph the broken mirror in the far left corner. As she sifted through the pieces, she turned one over, only to find a bright red script on the back. Frowning, she read<p>

_"Someone broke the looking glass"_

Nick walked towards the front right corner, photographing the size eleven shoe prints left on the patio style floor.  
>"Hey, I think someone had it in for their mother."<br>"Hum?" Greg mumbled.  
>"You know the old rhyme-"<br>"The step on a crack-break your mom's back rhyme?" Don asked with raised eyebrows.  
>Nick nodded. "Well, someone has made a point to walk only on the pavement cracks, and there are no other shoe prints anywhere." He squinted at the prints. "There's writing in them, almost like it was scratched into the shoes-<p>

_"You're walking on the pavement cracks."_

"I gotta dead spider!" Lindsay cried, easing up the squashed tarantula and examining it at eye level. "There's some sort of paper underneath it, like a business card, the number is 01844-1983-1988. There's guck on top of the name- wait, it's not a name. More like a statement," she frowned deeply.

_"A spider's been killed."_

"Oh she is gonna love Grissom." Greg murmured, but the hairs on the back of his neck were sticking up_. Just a prank call, Greggo, just a load of coincidences, don't let it bug you that this is sounding like that message, you'll be fine_. His heart jumped and he swallowed as he removed the dust sheet from the table and his eyes widened as he took in the pair of blood spattered shoes on the table, the red writing scrawled across them

_"Shoe's upon the table."_

"No, no this can't be happening," Greg murmured desperately, his gaze falling upon a flood of white crystals on the table. A large empty salt shaker lay at the edge, and someone had dragged a bloody finger across, marking the words

"_The salt's been spilled."_

Greg swallowed and stepped back, unaware that the coroner had arrived, and Don and Nick were helping get the body down.

As the body fell to the floor, the coroner- a large African American lady- gently removed the poncho.

Greg stumbled around and stared in horror at the writing carved into the girl's skin. As the coroner removed the bag from the girls head, Greg's throat caught in the worst possible way, and he felt like he was going to throw up. Forgetting the importance of first impressions, ignoring the fact he would be thought of as a pathetic child, denying the professional instincts in him to stay calm, Greg staggered back, bile rising in his throat.

"No, no, no, this can't be happening, that's impossible, no...no, NO!"

Lindsay looked at Greg in concern as she pressed play on a portable CD player. The same song from Greg's mailbox began to play full volume and Greg choked.

Nick looked up in shock, "Greg, what's up buddy? Greg?"

Greg's eyes slid from the girl's face down to the bloody letters, which were the last things he saw before he passed out.

_"Now you know the devil's got your number."_

When they finally reached the scene, Adam felt like he had been on the receiving end of one of Mac's interrogations. He had decided that he liked them both enough to talk to, but they both intimidated him, making him feel less superior. He didn't think that they even knew that they were doing it. He was relieved to see that Mac had beat them there, he felt like he needed _someone _who knew what he could do.

"Mac, did Sinclair not need you or something?" he asked as he led the women towards Mac.

"No," he said sadly, "I got a call from Detective King here, insisting we made this an immediate priority," he motioned to a red haired lady who smiled sadly at Adam, "it's now a quadruple homicide."

Detective King's eyes were wet. "I found a dead baby."

"A...a wh...what?" Adam stuttered.

Sara's face fell from eager yet professional to sorrowful, and Catherine's throat caught, "Oh, god," she murmured.

"A dead baby," King confirmed sadly, "I don't think she suffered though. She took what looks to a single bullet wound to the head. The same can't be said for the little boy, though; he looks about three or four. Without the coroner I obviously can't say anything, but I have a bad feeling he may have been beaten to death, and there was a lot of blood..." Catherine lowered her head as Sara rubbed her face with her hands. "The other two vics are older there's a boy about sixteen and a women in her mid to late twenties."

"Were they a family?" Catherine asked.

Detective King shrugged. "I don't know. At the moment, they're Jane Does and John Does. They do bear some resemblance to each other."

"Oh, god," Catherine repeated.

"The bodies are this way."

**#Oh, what's gonna happen to Greg? I wonder if anyone can guess where the song is from? PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! I can't go on if nobody likes it (Im wasting enough revision time as it is! ;-) )**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay, everyone! Thanks so much for the reviews- lily moonlight you are very welcome! Thank you for reading my story :), and I most probably will put some Stella/Mac time in in a bit which fits with a part of the story I was struggling with, so thanks! Well done to Molly Willmot for correctly naming blood brothers (great musical!) as the source of the song left on Greggo's phone! **

**Please enjoy and REVIEW! **

**Chapter Five**

"So, what've you got so far?" Grissom asked Stella, whose polite smile melted to a discontented frown.

"Not much: A dead John Doe, all recognisable features burnt away, we think by the pizza oven he was found stuffed in, no fingerprints, no foreign DNA, no shoe prints, no nothing. There was absolutely nothing at the crime scene, we don't know who our victim is, we don't know who it is, we don't know why he's dead, we don't know how he got to the pizzeria-"

"Okay," Grissom interrupted, "What do you know? It's always a good place to start."

Stella sighed angrily and Danny took over the commentary. "What we know is that we have a nameless John Doe, an' a note written in blood."

Grissom's eyes lit up. "Well, that's really good, what did it say?"

"It was a song from _The Little Mermaid, _more precisely the lyrics to the 'Jonas Brother's' cover version. All we have is a killer with a great love for Disney." Sheldon sighed, looking at Grissom in mild hope.

"I see your problem." Grissom frowned.

"Ah, finally!" Stella muttered, closing here phone. "Sid's ready."

Sara felt like breaking down as she walked into the plain, white room, the whitest Sara had ever seen in her life. It was disorientating, ever the floors were spotless. In the middle of the room were three metal beds, each with a victim chained to it. Even the little boy was bound with chains. Sara could see why it had been called in as a triple.

"Where's the last body?" Sara called, scanning the room.

"This way," Detective King motioned. She led into a little room off the side of the white room. Inside was a single chest of draws. The top draw was open, and inside was the body of a baby, about six months old, wrapped in a blanket just as white as the room.

"God," Catherine breathed. "Who could do this?"

"They must have re-wrapped the baby after they shot it, there's no blood on the sheets."

"How did you find the baby?" Adam asked, unable to tear his eyes from the little boy in the main room, his black and blue face and body reminding Adam of what it was like when his dad used to get drunk.  
>"I heard something crying, walked in and found this little white dog pawing at the chest, whining his poor little heart out. I think he'd been trained as a hearing dog; when he saw me come in, he came over, touched my leg and walked back to the draws and so I opened the top one. This is what I found. There were no other bodies in the other draws so I left them as I found them for you."<p>

"Was the dog trying to eat the baby?" Adam asked suspiciously.

Detective King chuckled quietly. "No, no. It tried to lick the baby's face- I obviously pulled it off but the dog's body language was more 'help the baby' than 'eat the baby'. I grew up surrounded by dogs, I've never not owned one, and so I am pretty confident in that assumption."

"Where is the dog now?" Mac asked, frowning.

"Animal control are taking it back to the crime lab, I told them it was evidence..."

"Adam, do you want to go back to the lab and process the dog?" Mac wondered, and Adam groaned internally. He was being given the opportunity to remove himself from a possibly awkward situation where he would almost undoubtedly embarrass himself, back to the lab where he could do HIS job, that he was good at, however, the dog would probably end up as a massive viscous Rottweiler or something. Then he reminded himself of two things, 1. Detective King had said 'little white dog', and she had also said it was a hearing dog. Those weren't normally too vicious. 2. He _had _to make a good impression. Besides, it wasn't like he didn't like dogs. He just got a bit nervous about processing dogs on the job, as they had usually killed somebody.

"Sure thing boss!" Adam chirped, already feeling like this was a good idea. "Um, is there anything else you want me to take back at the same time?"

Mac hesitated, looking around the apartment. "Um, not at the moment, Adam, but it's gonna be a busy day so once you're done with the dog I'm sure the others would appreciate help processing their evidence.

"Will do. It is my job." He grinned, slightly nervously and a smile slid across Sara's face.

"If I take in here, would you two like to start in the main room?" Mac asked politely, and Catherine nodded.

"Absolutely." Sara smiled agreeably as the two women stepped into the wide room, closing the door behind them.

"So, what do you think?" Catherine murmured as they walked to the centre of the room, Catherine taking the first bed, holding the teenage boy and Sara took the one with the women.

"I like Adam," Sara mused, "he seems nice, and helpful, and he seems like he can be a laugh. D'you think we intimidated him a bit though?"

Catherine laughed softly. "Maybe. I agree with you though, he seems like an okay guy. What about Mac?"

Sara pursed her lips. "I'm not sure. I don't not like him, he seems like someone I could get on with, but you know, first impressions... Cath, we just met him properly, like, five minutes ago."

"I know, I know." Catherine grinned. "I just- ah."

"You are in a very good mood for a quadruple homicide with dead children." Sara frowned questioningly.

Catherine's lips curled slightly. "I just feel- elated. It's weird, like I've been away in the clouds since I was told about the transfer. I have gotta tell you, those FBI guys where I was working, they just didn't cut it. Sloppy with evidence, lack of passion, no sense of humour and to be honest, they just...They weren't my team. Now, I'm in a new city. I have a fresh start; nothing from Vegas is following me but Lindsay, who wholeheartedly agreed to transfer to a college in New York. That shocked me, but she said that she was watching a film the other day, and decided that she wanted to be closer to me again."

"Really? That's great!" Sara exclaimed.

Catherine smiled. "So I'm back with my daughter more and more in my life, and in a new city with a fresh start and the people who are more like family than colleagues." Catherine's face suddenly fell. "With one major exception."

Sara nodded sadly. "Warrick."

"Yeah," Catherine breathed.

Sara stared into space for a moment. "Okay, let's do this."

"That's how they did it?" Jess asked, shock on her face.

Aiden shrugged. "For me, yeah. They wanted to burn my body, so they had to perform step 2 as well as step 1. You just had to go through step 1; they didn't want you a charred skeleton."

Frowning, Jess turned back to Aiden. "I thought DJ Pratt killed you..."

Aiden sighed. "He did, but they just, did the extra on the side, gave him an offer just before he torched the car."

Jess felt a tear sliding down her cheek. "I never really twigged that I might have been dead. I thought they'd just given up looking for me."

Aiden nodded. "Feels that way."

"How do you know they did what they did? What if this is dead -dead?" Jess accused.

As if on cue as Aiden opened her mouth, the door was wrenched open, and two small parcels where thrown into the cell, along with two large bundles.

Jess inhaled sharply as the bundles began to squirm, revealing two small, dirty little twin girls.

"They're three years old." Aiden's voice broke.

"Mommy," one of the girls whispered, shuffling over to Aiden. "Mommy, did they hurt you again?"

Aiden sighed softly. "No, sweetie. I'm okay."

The little girl seemed to believe her mother, and she flopped wearily onto her mother's lap, sticking her thumb in her mouth. Jess's heartstrings twanged painfully as she took in the little girl's limp mouth. Whatever the men had done to her, she was too tired to suck her thumb. The other girl, an almost identical twin, dragged herself over to her mother and tugged her sleeve. Warily looking at Jess, the girl shrugged and pointed to Jess in an elaborate pantomime like gesture.

"Maxi, Danni, this is Jessica Angell." Aiden murmured softly.

"Friend?" the girl on her lap asked.

Jess smiled. "I hope so."

Curious but cautious, the girl in her mother's lap shifted. "You won't hurt me or Maxi or Mommy?"

Jess smiled again. "No, is your name Danni?"

The girl nodded. "I am Danni and this is Maxi. She can't talk."

"This is how I know we are still alive." Aiden interrupted softly then her voice dropped so low that Jess was sure the two little girls couldn't here. Jess herself could only just make out the words. "They made me pregnant. I gave birth. Dead people can't do that. Dead people can't scream as some monster cuts out the tongue of their two year old."

"First off I apologize for the slow autopsy. Yesterday I was just about to begin when I received a phone call informing me my youngest was hit by a car."

"Oh, god Sid-" Stella began as the three men beside her looked horrified, but in true Hammerback fashion Sid cut her off.

"No, no Stella, she's fine. Just a broken arm, few fractured ribs. Could've been whole lot worse. My wife is out of town with her mother, though, so I had to take her home. I began with Mr. John Doe over here as soon as I got in this morning. I found a few fibres on the victim, but the heat of the oven burnt away most of your would be evidence. COD is asphyxiation due to strangulation with some sort of cord. All the burns were post mortem."

"My guess is they didn't want him id-ed. I mean c'mon, they wiped the whole pizza place clean of prints, there wasn't even a smudge." Danny stated.

"Burning the body removed his fingerprints, making dental records and DNA the only ways to ID him..." Sheldon began, but Sid shook his head.

"Look here." He said grimly, opening the victim's mouth.

"His teeth have been removed?" Grissom noticed. "Post mortem?"

"Unfortunately for this poor man, no. His teeth were removed one by one about an hour before he died. The fire obviously destroyed a lot of him, but apparently he was already very skinny, he wasn't in the oven for more than five, ten minutes."

"That would mean this guy was past anorexia. My guess is tortured." Danny contemplated. "Held captive maybe?"

"But why?" Stella asked, frustrated.

Sid sighed. "That would be-"

"Our job." Stella and Danny said in unison.

"Right, I'm going to go run John Doe's DNA." Sheldon announced, making his way back to the lab.

"I may as well take another look at the note; see if I can find anything." Danny rubbed his forehead and took off behind Sheldon.

"By the way, I'm Sid, Sid Hammerback." Sid said to Grissom, extending his hand.

"Gil Grissom."

**Author's note: I swear Greg's situation will be explored straight away in the next chapter-which will be uploaded asap if I get reviews! Thank you! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Heya! Slightly short filler chapter here. Thank you for my review lily moonlight. I know, it was uncomfortable to write to, but Danni and Maxi play an important part later, and that has to do with Maxi's sad past. **

**Anyways, please do review, peeps! Anyone reading this story should get it by now- review = quick update! Simples! **

**Chapter Six**

"Greg? Hey, Greggo, wake up!"

Greg moaned as he blinked his eyes open to the sound of Nick's concerned voice. His head was still spinning, and he couldn't remember what was going on.

"Has this kid never seen a victim's face before or something?" Don muttered angrily, his eyes surveying the evidence Greg had sent flying as he fell.

Suddenly, it all came back to Greg and he sat up as fast as a rocket. "Oh my god!"

"Hey, man, he's fully capable he just-"

"Then why the hell is he-along with half our evidence-on the floor?"

"Guys!" Lindsay shouted, interrupting Nick's angry retort. "Stop it! He's a CSI, not a kid, and I'm sure if you let him explain he will have a perfectly reasonable explanation. Okay?"

Greg sent Lindsay a grateful look and stood up. "I...well...This morning I noticed a message left on my phone." He took a deep breath. "It was that song...that song and I just thought it was a prank so I deleted it...this whole scene is staged to fit the song, and the worst thing is..." Greg stared at the floor.

"What?" Nick pressed gently.

Greg sighed. "I knew her. Her name was Elisa. Elisa Hojem. She was my cousin."

Nick sighed. "Oh, god Greg-" he began as Don opened his mouth to apologise but Greg cut them both off.

"No, you don't get it. That is definitely Elisa, beyond, beyond any doubt, okay, I swear you can do as many DNA checks as you want but I swear it's her-"

"Hey, Sanders, what are you getting at?" Don said, the cynical note from his voice gone as a gentler, more sympathetic edge shone through.

"Elisa died three years ago."

"Oh my god," Jess breathed, here heart breaking for the friend of her friends and the two little girls.

Aiden nodded sadly, but then her eyes lit up slightly. "But you know- they never touch them. They beat me and they...well, you know...but they never touch the girls. You know the one they call Henri?" Jess nodded and Aiden continued. "He said that he doesn't like hurting children. Apart from Maxi's tongue, they've never really hurt them, and after that they drugged her to kingdom come to take away the pain. It was the worst day of my life, but ever since they've stuck to depriving them of the right amount of food and sleep. They force them to behave, but they're good kids, they don't...they never fight, each other or the men. The men take them away whenever they want to do, _something _with me...not always if it's just a beating though."

Jess shook her head. "That's...this is..." she jumped as she felt a small hand on her arm. She looked down at Maxi who was tugging her sleeve gently. She moved her hand to touch Jess's face, then made a swift gesture with her hands. Jess frowned.

"What?" she murmured softly.

"She says are you okay?" Danni said in a sing song voice.

"You know sign language?" she asked in disbelief. "Who taught you?"

"One of the men, his name is Marty. He teaches us when they speak to Mommy. We think the lessons are hard, but he says we're just little girls so we don't know anything." Danni explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

Another swift tug at her sleeve sent Jess's eyes downward. Maxi repeated the motion and Jess nodded. "I'm fine. Hey, this floor isn't very comfy. You wanna sit in my lap?" Jess offered, looking to Aiden for approval. Aiden smiled her thanks.

"Jessica...Jess?" she sighed. "I know you've been here a while too, but...how was everyone when you...left?"

Jess exhaled. "Well, um...where do you want me to start?"

Mac was giving Catherine, Sara and the evidence a lift back to the crime lab and Sara was a little irritated.

"How can a women and kids as young as that be murdered with as little evidence as that? Sometimes I hate this job."

Mac chuckled slightly. "You seem rather passionate about the case..."

"Oh you have no idea." Catherine murmured darkly and Sara gave her the death stare.

"Hey Sara, I found this underneath the baby...Do you know what it is?" Mac passed Sara a bagged and tagged photo of a graffitied wall. The words on it were easy to read.

"Sure, it's a song...

"_Tell me would you kill,_

_To save a life_

_Tell me would you kill,_

_To prove you're right_

_Crash, crash_

_Burn let it all burn_

_This hurricane's chasing us underground." _

"Lindsey used to love that song, it's-" the insistent buzzing of her phone cut Catherine off.

"Hello?"

"_Hey Catherine, its Nick." _

"Nicky?" Catherine said surprised. "You two got yourselves in trouble already?"

"_Something like that." _

"What?"

"_Greg is sure he knows our vic." _

"Damn. Should I get him taken off the case?" Sara and Mac turned around in shock at Catherine's speculation

"_No, no Cath, you misunderstood. That's not the problem. He ever talk to you about his cousin Elisa?" _

"Uh, yeah, about three years ago. He told me she was dead."

"_Well, um...she seems to have died again..."_

"What?" Catherine whispered.

"_Coroner says TOD is about 9:30am, but Greg is certain it's his cousin." _

Catherine swallowed, unsure of what to say. "Nicky...is Greg sure, I mean...Nick that's impossible. Maybe Greg's jet lagged...or it's a look alike...or maybe...Nick maybe Greg's not well..."

Sara's head snapped up at that, her eyes wide and concerned.

"_I dunno Cath, he says someone left a message on his phone, and there are bits of the same message all over the crime scene. Look, Catherine I had him process the outside and we're on our way back to the lab now. He's calling Grissom, but I wanted to warn you that Greg may have unintentionally gotten himself into trouble. Again." _

"Nick, by trouble... what do you mean?"

Sara frowned and motioned to Catherine to put the phone on speakerphone, which she did. Nick's concerned voice filled the SUV.

"_Well, I don't think it matters if it's Elisa or a lookalike. I think Greg might have a stalker."_

"Found anything?" Stella asked Danny hopefully as she walked into the lab he was working in.

Danny sighed bitterly. "No prints, its standard paper could be from anywhere, the ink is the vic's blood, no other donors, no quirky handwriting features. Nothing but the words themselves and I've googled them. Nothing that seems remotely to connect to our John Doe."

Stella bit her lip nervously, and absentmindedly watched as Mac led the two new women into a lab, helping them bring in the evidence for processing. A few minutes later, Lindsay and the boys walked up, and Stella was too preoccupied with scrutinising the note that she didn't notice the pale, chalky look on the faces of the three younger CSIs that had entered the lab next door. Half an hour later, her pager went off, along with the pagers of every CSI on either team, and they all made their way to autopsy.

What greeted them when they arrived shocked them all.

Sid stood with a grim look on his face, along with several other coroners- the one's working the three cases.

"We have made several...discoveries. Starting with Pizza oven John Doe, who was most definitely alive early this morning- TOD was about 5am. His name was Jude McBride."

"Wait a second, that's impossible," Nick exclaimed. "Jude McBride and his family were murdered years ago."

"I remember the case, only his little girl survived, I think her name was Cassie, Nick got..." Sara trailed off as Nick glared at her.

"I'm sorry, but dental records, bone size, old injuries, DNA...It all concludes that this is Jude McBride. And that's not all." Sid uncovered the next victim.

"Oh, Jesus," Lindsay hissed as she saw the women from the warehouse. Mac looked at her in confusion. "Is that..."

Sid nodded. "Olivia Lincoln. Mac, she was murdered while you were in London, by..."

"My childhood best friend, Jacob Jackson. He's still in prison." Lindsay finished, many disturbed stares resting on her.

The African-American coroner that had been at the teenagers scene, Rose Harper, spoke up softly. "The girl from the warehouse is Elisa Hojem, your cousin, Mr. Sanders. I'm sorry."

Sara and the New York CSIs looked at Greg in shock, having not yet been filled in with the details of Greg's situation at the warehouse. Greg threw back his head and ran his hands through his hair.

Sid cleared his throat, looking concernedly at Greg. "The baby from Mac's scene belongs to Olivia Lincoln, we're still waiting for DNA but my guess is that the younger boy is too. However, the older boy is also unfortunately familiar." He uncovered the body and Danny blanched. "Ruben Sandoval. Aged 5 years but defiantly him."

"God!" Danny exclaimed. "Sid, what the hell is going on, you bringing back our nightmares now?"

"Danny!" Lindsay chided, and Danny closed his eyes.

"Sorry Sid, I just..."

"Danny," Sid interrupted. "I understand. Please let me tell you everything that I know. Every victim bar the two youngest seem to have been somehow brought back from the dead- their fatal wounds all look like they have healed, but rather badly. We found years old tumours in Jude, Olivia and Ruben. Jude's would have been painful, but Olivia and Ruben's were so small I doubt they would know they were there for sometime, assuming that they had no access to a doctor which brings me onto something else. All of them, bar the baby have extreme ligature marks around their wrists and ankles. They are all slightly malnourished.

My guess that the people responsible for this have held a grudge for many years, and probably used what is known as the Jehovah method."


	7. Chapter 7

**Ok, its been a while. Please don't shoot me. This chapter was REALLY hard to right, theres a bit at the end where two characters in particular may seem out of character, but all with be explained in chapter eight, I promise. Well, all to do with that anyway! Please enjoy and review, hope i still have some readers and hope its worth the wait! **

**Chapter Seven**

"So that's how I met them all."  
>Aiden smiled to herself.<br>"Um, um, um, mommy...mommy..." Danni began, mumbling into Aiden's chest. "Does Jess know dadeem as well?"  
>Jess frowned. "Dadeem?"<br>Aiden grinned. "The team. I've told them about all of them...to try and keep them entertained...tell them about cases without going into details of autopsy-obviously I don't tell them about murders, but I try to make it like a mystery book...even back when Maxi was able to talk, neither of them could ever pronounce it. _The team. Dadeem_."  
>"Mommy?" Danni pressed without whining. "Does she?"<br>Jess smiled at the child, who was chewing on her hair, a solemn expression contrasting with the child's typically childlike behaviour. "Yes. I knew dadeem." The word sounded strange-almost foreign- as it bubbled over her lips, but Jess liked it. It sounded sweet, affectionate and innocent.  
>"Who is Li-nah-see?"<br>"She does your mommy's job, she's very nice."  
>Maxi pulled on her sleeve. Her hands fluttered rapidly, and Danni was quick to translate.<br>"So do you know the others, like Danny and Mac?"  
>Jess smiled, and it hit her again why Aiden had given her daughters the names she had. "Yes, I do. When I... Left...Danny and Lindsay were pretty much newlyweds, just starting their family."<br>"So they have a kid?" Aiden asked, bittersweet feelings she didn't understand swelling round her head, and Jess nodded.  
>"She would be about...three and a half now..."<br>"Oh..." Aiden paused. When she spoke again her voice was much quieter. "What's her name?"  
>"Lucy. Lucy Aiden Messer."<p>

The deathly silence that had smothered the morgue remained in the air until Hawkes cleared his throat.

"Sid, by the Jehovah effect, you don't mean...?"

"Actually Sheldon, yes I do. The urban legend that no doctor, coroner or in fact any sane person would possibly believe, but the only possible explanation for what I see before me now.

"Several years ago, there were a group of four scientists, doctors. They were supposedly looking for a way to beat death. All of them were well known geniuses, all with extraordinarily high IQs. Their leader, Mickel Jevriukoff was a brilliant man, but he was also devoted to his wife, who was dying of an inoperable tumour on her brain.

These four men spent most of their time in their lab, until finally they supposedly created a pair of drugs- deoxyributathonoical acid and haemotoxirabutathonal, which they used in tandem. The first was hypothetically injected or ingested, then the second. When taken together they cause major activity in the heart and lungs, which would kill someone immediately, unless their hearts weren't beating properly in the first place. Together, even on a dead body, it forces the heart to fibrillate violently and the pulmonary system to take in oxygen. The deoxyributathonoical acid also has preserving agents that last up to six to seven days after death.

The scientists found that if they administered the deoxyributathonoical acid a little while pre-mortem then suffocated a small animal, such as a mouse and then injected the haemotoxirabutathonal up to the six or seven days later, the mouse would breathe again. They tried it on the Jevriukoff's wife when she collapsed in the street, but she then killed herself a day later, when the pain was too much to bear. Jevriukoff was devastated, and three days later, he and his friends turned up dead, decapitated, as a matter of fact. The legend goes that it was stolen by a terrorist organisation called _Diablos_. They apparently created their own drug by accident, influencing extraordinary healing using stem cells. That drug, if used with the other two would allow people to effectively murder someone, and then raise them again."

"What happened to these victims?" Mac presumed.

Sid shook his head and took off his glasses. "I don't know, but that's my current explanation. Nothing else makes sense; they were all, bar the youngest two, alive a few nights ago, dead before that and dead now."

The tension was suffocating Nick. He needed to breathe, to get some air, but he felt like there was nowhere to go. He sucked in a massive breath of air, but it didn't reach his lungs.

_Damn it. _He thought as he recognised the symptoms of a panic attack. He hadn't had one for years – they had started after he was buried in that coffin. _He'd been in an elevator, leaving the hospital, when all of a sudden intense pain assaulted his chest and Nick couldn't breathe. As he started trembling and choking, he must have hit the panic button twenty times._ The last time Nick had had a panic attack was nearly 7 years ago. With another painful twang, he realised that it was halfway through the McBride's case. He remembered it clearly – after they'd interrogated the boy, Mark. They'd been about to go to the lake to look for the bodies, when Nick had felt the call of nature and rushed to the men's room. Once he'd got in there, he'd started freaking out. The only thing that stopped the panic attack from consuming Nick completely was the desperate yearning in him to find the McBride's little girl, Cassie and bring her home. Now, that wasn't even there.

_Aw, dammit between me and Greg they're gonna think we're a bunch of pussies, _part of Nick's brain moaned. However, the rest of his mind was focusing on breathing in and out. As his breaths began to get caught in his throat, Nick's eyes met Sara's, and an understanding passed between them.

"Hey, um guys, I can't find my cell phone, I think left it in the lab... Nick, will you come help me find it? Please?" She smiled sweetly, and Nick nodded tightly.

"Sure," was all he could manage to say. The two of them made their way into the elevator, and it was there when they were alone that Nick leaned against the side of the elevator and sucked in the biggest breaths he could muster. Sara, recognising the signs herself after the Natalie Davis incident began to rub Nick's arm comfortingly.

"It's okay. It's gonna be alright Nicky."

He smiled his trademark smile at her through his tears as they came, uncontrollably attacking his eyes. The sobs wrenched in his throat, but it made Sara smile a bittersweet smile as _he _tried to make _her _feel better.

"You...o...okay?" he stuttered, and she put her arms around his neck and pulled his head onto her shoulder.

"I'm fine, Nicky. And you're gonna be too. We're gonna catch this guy. I promise."

DB strode angrily through the Las Vegas crime lab, and no one stood in his way. This was _not _normal behaviour for DB, but he had reached the end of the road. Little under a week ago, he had lost three of the best CSIs he had ever seen. Sure, the people who replaced them were good at the job, but they lacked something that DB had always admired in Nick, Greg and Sara, and even Catherine before she moved to the FBI. It hadn't taken DB long to realise that what the new CSIs lacked was the distinct, individual personalities the others had had, and when the new CSIs clashed, they argued. Nick and Greg would bicker good naturedly over the music they listened to in the car, but it never got serious unless something was very wrong. The new CSIs just didn't gel as a team, and none of them were interested in opening up personally to the others.

DB was also worried about Morgan. Ever since the dreaded news about the transfers, she had been constantly arguing with Ecklie. The first time it was a lab spectacle. Now, the people in the lab almost expected it- and it had only been five days since the news came in, four since they were gone. Already things were changing.

Just to top it all off, his boy had been suspended from school again, _and _Julie Finlay was off with the flu.

He sighed as he heard raised voices once again coming from Ecklie and his daughter.

"For god's sakes, why can't you just let it _go, _Morgan? I had no choice!"

"This one should be good!" DB gritted his teeth at the voice of Marty Jones, one of the new CSIs. It was another thing DB despised about the newcomers. They loved watching the fights.

Morgan rolled her eyes, tears brimming around the edges. "You've said that a lot. A lot of those times there were other choices. Better choices."

"I always did what I thought was best."

"Oh, really? Best for who?"

"Well, first, you and your mother. Then, the lab."

"Oh, well see, there is your problem- right there!"

"What?" Ecklie scrunched up his eyebrows.

"You don't see people! You see things. Like..." Morgan thought for a second before dragging an unsuspecting Henry into the middle by his shirt collar. "Here. You don't see Henry Andrews, the human being with needs and dreams. You see a lab technician, replaceable and under your control."

DB began to step forward to stop Morgan as he saw the tremendous shade of purple Ecklie turned. But of all things he expected, DB was shocked at Conrad Ecklie's next move.

Archie was watching in nervous amusement at the door of the A/V lab, but his eyes widened at Morgan's lurch at Henry. The poor guy looked ready to wet himself. Ecklie was standing two feet in front of Archie, and as Henry desperately tried to avoid eye contact with Ecklie, his eyes met Archie's. Archie motioned helplessly with his hands as Henry began to try squirming free whilst Morgan's grip loosened. The next thing Archie knew, Conrad Ecklie had a firm hold on the back of his neck and Archie was dragged straight to the front.

"Conrad!" DB shouted, appalled.

But Ecklie was past negotiations. "So what your saying is that I should poke my nose into the personal lives of my colleagues and fix all their problems."

"Look, you're hurting him!" Morgan screamed, tightening her grip on Henry who winced.

"You didn't answer me!"

"Suspend her!" Marty's friend, Sandy crooned.

"Yeah," Marty agreed. "Put her in place!"

They both shut up at the livid look on DB's face.

Archie swallowed. "Um, sir, please let, ow, ow, ow!" he squirmed as Ecklie's grip tightened.

"Ecklie! Brody!" DB shouted. "What the hell is going on?"

"My mom is _dead_! There was a car crash, but if _he _had done as he had _promised _and picked her up, she never would have been in the taxi!" Morgan shrieked in anguish, shocking the lab to silence. Well, almost silence

"Please, Morgan." Henry gasped quietly as he tried to get some air.

"Don't blame your mother's death on me! I said _I had no choice!" _Ecklie yelled.

"_Stop!" _ A new voice shouted.

Everyone froze as a furious Mandy stormed out of her lab. She strode straight to Ecklie, yanking an aching Archie out from his grasp, and dragging Archie's arm, firmly but gently, over to Morgan, all the while staring daggers at Ecklie. Then she extracted Henry from Morgan's grip, hooking her arms through one of each of the two shaken techs arms.

"I'm sorry about your Mom." She said sincerely. "But you crossed a line." She turned to look at Ecklie. "Both of you. I really, truly feel for both of you. I really do. But that does not give you a n excuse to _terrorize _us. Like you said Morgan, we're people. Not things. We may 'just be lab rats' in your minds, but actually, you couldn't do your jobs without us. And we stick together. We're a team. I thought the _whole _lab was supposed to be part of that team too. My mistake."

The steely cold of Mandy's enraged voice penetrated everyone as she led Henry and Archie away, sending a dirty look at the people behind her. After a few seconds, Bobby Dawson took one look at Ecklie and followed. Hodges followed him, and one by one, the loyal lab techs walked out of the Las Vegas Crime Lab.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello! I have not forgotten this story, as you can see. I am very very VERY sorry for the long break but I have been struggling with the worst type of writers block. This was a very hard chapter to write and I am still not happy with it but I am sorry. (I did make it the longest chapter yet to make up for the wait, though) BTW, my first story for CSI is up on the CSI page, it's called 'The Kids Aren't Alright', so check it out if you like. Either way- try to enjoy the chapter, and drop me a review pretty please (or I shall take EVEN LONGER to update) **

**Chapter Eight**

Stella glared at the three crime-scene notes. Why, why, why would they not just match? She groaned aloud in frustration.

"Having trouble?"

Stella turned and smiled at Mac as he walked into the lab, before turning back to the screen. "Yeah. All that links the crime scenes at the moment is the bodies, and these notes. The notes are all songs, but we couldn't even match it to someone's musical tastes – the genres are completely different. Someone is giving us the finger, Mac and god, the look on their faces, when Sid told them who the vics were... Danny, Lindsay...the new guys-" Stella stopped as she felt Mac's hand on her shoulder. She twisted around and saw the small smile on Mac's face.

"Stell, we're just starting to get going. Soon, Sid will call and give us some more evidence. We have new CSIs, as well as the best damn team I have ever seen. We're just starting our investigation."

Stella paused, and Mac looked at the three sets of lyrics. "Well, we have Disney, Blood Brothers and 30 Seconds to Mars. They all have a message. The first is the story of a villain – talking about her victims. The second is a narrator – telling a woman that she is doomed. And the third is asking whether or not you would be able to kill someone to save someone else. Well, they're all very ominous."

A comfortable pause filled the air. Mac sighed. "I'm gonna go check on the boys, I've left them looking for other links between the victims."

"By the 'boys', you mean-"

"Danny, Sheldon, Nick and Greg."

Stella raised her eyebrows. "Paperwork? The boys, paperwork?"

Mac smiled wanly. "Well, it's not in there for a punishment; it's one of the only things we can do. They're mature enough to know that."

"Ah, I see. That's why you're checking up on them, huh?" Mac smiled at Stella's correct assumption. "You do _want _them to get along, right?"

Mac laughed and walked to the door. Stella bit her lip for a moment. "Mac?"

He stopped and raised his eyebrows.

She hesitated again. "I... I missed you, Mac. It wasn't the same working with another team. Working without you."

Mac looked shocked before grinning again. "I missed you too."

**CSIVNYCSIVNY**

"No way, man?"

"You played ball too?"

"Oh god, here we go." Greg sighed dramatically

Sheldon looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?"

Greg gestured to Nick and Danny, whose faces had lit up. "Danny mentioned baseball. Nick will now brag for approximately... well, I'm not even sure how long... about all of the games he did in all high school, how he could have been a star...blah, blah, blah. Now, he finds it amusing that my mom refused to let me do sports, and therefore every time we go to either play or watch baseball, I get it in my face how good he is at kicking my ass."

Sheldon studied the young man. There was a twinkle in Greg's eye that Sheldon had watched grow through the light teasing Nick, Sara and Greg had dipped in as they'd walked back to various labs. Sheldon liked Greg, and he liked the way he interacted with Nick and Sara, like siblings. Like _them, _Sheldon realised. The new transfers were just as much of a family as the New Yorkers.

"Really? Well, Danny was actually gonna be a baseball player, until he fractured his wrist. Shattered all his chances, apparently. So he became a CSI, instead."

Greg looked sympathetic. "Damn. Sucks when stuff like that happens."

"Nah, baseball's loss, our gain."

"Guess so...Argh, nothing links any of the victims!" Greg threw the case file back onto the table. Glancing at Nick, he noticed that the Texan had abandoned his case file.

Nick stood up. "Anyone want some coffee?"

"You bet."

"I kinda took it for granted that you would, G. Danny, Sheldon?"

"Nah, I'm good, thanks" Danny shrugged.

"Coffee machine's just over there." Sheldon pointed, "Maybe. You guys all seem to drink a lot of coffee."

Greg laughed. "Habit. When you work nights, especially in Vegas, you need all the caffeine that you can get. Coffee is like, drink of the gods!"

"So, we have no obvious connections between any of our vics except that two were kids of one of them, they were all found in spotless crime scenes along with song lyrics, and they were all personal cases." Sheldon summarised.

"Pretty much," Danny agreed.

"That's it! They were all personal cases!" Nick cried.

"How does that help us?" Greg asked. "we already knew that."

"Well, this doesn't count so much for your cousin, Greg, but the rest of them...how do you know who to dose up with that deoxyributathonoical acid stuff to get the best reaction out of us, unless..."

"You've planned the crime!" Danny sang triumphantly.

"Exactly!"

Sheldon frowned. "We are definitely not looking for one person. It's impossible. So maybe we're looking for the terrorist group, the Diablos? How do these people plan the murders of four people, Jude McBride, Olivia Lincoln, Elisa Hojem, and Rueben Sandoval, and send different people to prison to pay for their crimes, without knowing that they'll talk?"

"We need to talk to the people behind bars." Greg clarified.

Danny sniffed. "Wow. Nick, that coffee, by the smell, I'm actually tempted..."

Nick placed a steaming mug in front of Danny, and passed one to Sheldon. "Here you go."

"Okay, I get why you have coffee all the time! This is great stuff!" Danny exclaimed.

Greg took his and took a sip. Then his eyes darkened.

"Nicholas Arsehole Stokes!"

"What?" Nick said innocently.

"This is _my _coffee! My blue Hawaiian! The stuff that costs me like more than my pay check!"

Awkwardly, Sheldon pushed his mug forward, but Greg stopped him. "No! Honestly, have it, it's the best of the best. But Nick should know better than to _take my coffee without asking!_"

"What can I say man, you have a great taste in coffee."

Greg rolled his eyes. "I am so gonna get you for that."

"No way, man. You admire me too much." Nick grinned, and Danny and Sheldon snorted.

"God, what is it-pick on the young geek day? Jesus, this is high school all over again..." Greg sighed dramatically. Then his eyes lit up. "I know..."

Nick was instantly worried. "What?"

Raising his eyebrows, Greg replied very simply,

"You'll find out soon enough."

**CSIVNYCSIVNYCSIVNY**

"Hey, you two gorgeous girls!" A voice crooned through the small window in the otherwise solid steel door locking Jess and Aiden into their prison. "I've brought the two of you a new playmate."

Jess and Aiden automatically pushed themselves into crouching positions, carefully manoeuvring the two little girls so that they were hidden behind their backs. Aiden thought it was a sign that there was still hope for the human race that she had made a friend who was already willing to shelter Maxi with her own body.

A tall African American man was shoved roughly into the small space, the door slamming behind him. He had a fairly large afro and a serious look on his face.

He frowned when he saw them. "You two prisoners here?"

They looked at each other in confusion and nodded.

The man relaxed slightly, sliding down the wall opposite them, his guard still up. "You two got any food?"

Aiden shook her head, and Jess silently handed the man half a cereal bar she had been given in the morning. It was a rule she had made within the first three weeks-always save something from breakfast in case it's all you have to each for that day.

"Are you sure?" the man looked at her incredulously. "Thank you. I'm really, really sorry for begging. I haven't eaten for four and a half days."

Aiden took in the man's extremely skinny figure and believed him- the clothes he wore hung loosely off his frame, and the buttons had all fallen off the shirt, letting it hand open to show his chest, the ribs sticking out like rungs on a ladder.

The man carefully extracted the cereal bar from the wrapper and ate it slowly, savouring every bite of the dry, woody food.

"How long have the two of you been here?"

"Six years." Aiden replied.

Jess was next. "Three."

The man nodded. "Three, I think. What year is it?"

"2012." Aiden said softly. "It's 2012."

"Damn, that makes it four years then." The man muttered. Then he noticed the little girls hiding behind the women.

He looked at Aiden. "They your kids?"

She nodded. "Danni and Maxi."

The man looked at them almost longingly. "I have a son. At least, I think I do. He could be anywhere in the world right now. I...I got divorced, from his mom. We were having a custody battle. I didn't want to take him from his mother; I just didn't want her to take him away from me. Guess I shouldn't have worried about that."

Aiden felt desperately sorry for the sorrowful stranger. "What was his name? Your son? How old was he?"

Sighing, the man explained, "He was just a baby when I got shot. A few months old. He won't remember me. His name was Eli. Sometimes I wonder if his mom ever tells him about me. He'd be four now."

"I'm five." Danni piped up. "And so is Maxi. We're twins."

"Are you now?" The man smiled.

"Uh-huh." Danni watched Maxi's hands flutter for a moment. Then she turned back to the man. "Are you with the bad guys?"

"No." The man said firmly.

"Do _you _know dadeem?"

"What?" The man frowned.

Aiden explained. "My name is Aiden, I used to work for the New York crime lab, and I was a CSI. The team I was with were my best friends, even when I got fired, they still meant a lot to me, so I told the girls about them. Jess over there was a cop, who worked a lot with the team. The kids call them dadeem even though they've never met them."

"New York Crime Lab, huh?" the man rubbed his face. "That'd be where...Mac Taylor worked?"

Jess's eyes widened. "You do know them?"

"Nah, I met Mac Taylor at a forensics conference my boss sent me to once. I was a CSI."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah." Looking as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders, the man looked at Aiden. "You said that your team were your best friends. Well, my parents were both only children, both died when I was a kid. I was raised by my grandmother, she's dead now too. My wife and I got divorced... My team, it was my family. I had a 'dad', a 'twin', a 'sister' and an 'annoying little kid brother'... Then, the assistant supervisor. She...she meant a lot to me. They were my family. And you know what? After the first couple of months, I got scared, because I forgot their faces, their voices. Then_ they _dosed me up on some hallucinogenic, and suddenly I remembered all of them. I haven't forgotten since."

Maxi tugged on her twin's sleeve and fluttered her hands. Danni turned to the man. "Who was in your team?"

The man smiled sadly. "There was the supervisor. For everything he's ever done for me, he may as well be my father. Gil Grissom, bug fanatic, great CSI, great boss...then there was Nick Stokes, the Texan, my partner, almost my twin. We were polar opposites, but we were best friends. Bit of a jock, heart the size of Jupiter...There was Sara Sidle, like my little sister, feisty, but sweet. Vegetarian, strongly opposed to cruelty to animals, and cruelty to anything else except paedophiles and rapists. Great person, once she let her barriers down. Of course, the family part got a little weird when she started dating Grissom, but, oh well. Then there was Greg. Greg Sanders. Great kid, used to be the strangest but the best DNA tech you knew. Blasting out all kinds of music as loud as he could in the lab, dancing around in show girls' hats...he became a great CSI. I wasn't as close to Greg as much as I was to Nick, but he was still like a brother. The annoying kid brother, I guess. Then there was Catherine. I s'pose to Nick and Greg in particular, she was like the mom. But to me...Well, Cath sure was special. Daughter of a casino mogul, used to be a coked up stripper, became assistant supervisor of the second best crime lab in the country- was even my supervisor for a time. God I miss them so much."

Jess looked at him sympathetically. "What's your name?"

"Warrick. My name's Warrick Brown."


End file.
